After Class, Illuminated Presentation

With different time periods came different styles of illuminated manuscripts. It is very interesting to see the different designs of these illuminated manuscripts. Religion, like always, plays a huge role in what these manuscripts consisted of. Below are the different styles of manuscripts that we talked about in class today:

The Classical style manuscripts has a crisp text with an illustration that goes along with it. There is a great deal of space within the letters. Usually, the illustration is as wide as the text.

The Celtic book design manuscripts has spacing between their words (something we haven't seen much of yet)! The design is very geometric, using bright colors and textures within the design. Some new vocabulary also came with the celtic book design. They used diminuendo which is when the text gets smaller and smaller as the page reads on, and initium which the first letter or letters starting the text is very large.

The Caroline graphic renewal manuscripts is very cool to look at. On page 48, figure 4-7 (The Book of Kells), you can really see all the detail that was put into these manuscripts (I still haven't found all the heads)! There is so much detail within these manuscripts. The characters weren't joined in the type. In fact they were spread out.

The Spanish pictorial expressionism manuscripts are very appealing to the eye because intense color is used. A lot of flat shapes and colors make up the design. Some of them even look like optical illusions! Most illustrations were enclosed in a beautiful frame which consists of geometric shapes and colored designs.

The Romanesque and Gothic manuscripts has a lot of illustration involved in their design. The type is done using textura, which became the dominant theme throughout the lettering. These manuscripts have very little space. Either text or illustrations are always covering every inch of the parchment.

The Judaic manuscripts contain a lot of Jewish literature. Gold initials were used in these manuscripts, usually in the middle. Illustrations of pictures take up most of the manuscript and a lot of them include drawings of people and animals.

The Islamic manuscripts are very colorful and again have lots of geometric shapes containing calligraphy. They are very visual and hold a great deal of detail.

The Late Medieval illuminated manuscripts had little type and lots of illustration. In fact, the illustrations took over the whole page! These manuscripts have lots of detail as well with a lot of color.

One thing I learned today was all the above! I never knew about these different illuminated manuscripts and why they were made the way they were. I also never knew there were so many styles. My favorite, I must say, is the panish pictorial expressionism manuscripts because of the intense, visually appealing colors they used. I also like the different geometric designs incorporated in these manuscripts.

One question I have is why is it so hard to trace the scribe and illuminator to their illuminated manuscript? With a lot of these manuscripts, the artists went unknown. Why couldn't they have wrote their name on the back or bottom of their work? If this was my work, I would make sure to claim it and put my name on it!